Thank You For Being A Friend
by TrueBlue86
Summary: After having a heart to heart with Ginger, Gilligan sets out to make a wish of hers come true.


Gilligan sat sulking on the sand at the lagoon. He felt like a failure. Another possible rescue attempt foiled by him. If he had only left the bare wires as they were. If he had like the Professor said the bare wires would have been exposed to the salt water. The salt in the water would have corroded them and caused them to break. It had been their only hope since the telephone wire was washed back out to sea. But thinking that he was helping, he covered up the wires so they would not get wet. Now no one will find them.

A shadow came across him and he looked up seeing Ginger approaching. "Hi Gilligan." She greeted.

"Hi Ginger." He said unhappily. "You still mad at me?"

"No Gilligan I'm not mad." She said as she sat down next to him. "Truth be told Gilligan I was never actually mad at you. I mean I was upset at not being able to return to Hollywood but in hind sight I..."

"You what? What is it Ginger? The sailor asked.

"Well…I…I'm glad you covered up the wires." She said. "I'm glad they were not exposed to the salt in the water."

"You are?" Gilligan asked his voice high and his eyes wide.

"Yes." Ginger said looking down at the sand and picking at a shell. "I am. If you hadn't…well then that phone company would have sent a repair crew and…and I wouldn't see him anymore."

"Him? Him who?"

The redhead was silent a minute before answering. "The Professor."

"Professor? You were sad about not seeing the Professor again? Why?"

"Because…I….I like him." Ginger said blushing a bit still picking at the shell.

"You like the Professor?"

"I do." The movie star said with a sigh finally lifting up her head. "I'm glad that we are still here. Being here means that I get to stay with him. I want to stay with him."

"But Ginger…we can't stay here forever." The first mate pointed out. "I mean eventually someone will find us and we'll go home."

"I know…But I want that to be a long time from now. I want to be here along enough so that he will fall madly in love with me and then will want to go back to Hollywood and be with me. That's why I'm glad you foiled some of our rescues. I was always grateful that you did."

"Glad I could be of help." He said with a small smile. He then grew serious. "Ginger for what its worth I'm sure the Professor likes you."

"I don't know." Ginger said forlornly. "He's never gave any indication he was interested in romance."

Gilligan shook his head. "Ginger that's not true."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Ginger if the Professor didn't like you, he wouldn't have allowed you to kiss him for so long for our silent movie. He liked the kiss as much as you did. I was there. I thought you both were going to set the world's kissing record."

Ginger giggled. "Yeah I guess it was pretty long. It's not entirely our fault…Mr. Howell never yelled cut."

"I think Mr. Howell was waiting for you both to stop kissing before saying cut."

"I suppose so. But that doesn't mean…"

"Yes it does." Gilligan stated. "It does too. Who did he ask to be the nurse when I needed fillings? You. He asked you. Who did he want to help him with mixing the chemicals for that uh..that shiny junk…You. I believe his exact words were "How 'bout it Ginger." And from what I understand he went into that cave looking for the eye of the idol while thinking bat or mole or something. Skipper said it was because you told the Professor to do that. You think he would do that for anyone else?"

Ginger smiled. "I guess that's true." She then recalled something else. "But then Mary Ann said she would stay and I looked like an idiot."

"No you didn't." Gilligan assured. "What did the Professor do when you said you wouldn't leave. That you would give up Hollywood? You said Hollywood can wait. As soon as you did this, he changed his mind and said he would go along with the rest of us. He did that because he did not want you to give up your dream of returning to Hollywood."

"Oh." Ginger said. "I never thought of that."

"And Ginger….I knew that you and the Professor were scheming with the whole fortune telling thing."

"You did? How?"

"I heard you two outside your hut. I didn't want to say anything. I was also hoping that maybe it was true and you did have psychic powers."

Ginger laughed. "I guess I got carried away. I couldn't help it. I was acting again and it felt nice."

"You were very convincing." Gilligan said grinning. "I don't know how you got that table to rise."

The redhead giggled. "The Professor was hiding under the table. He propped it up with a bamboo pole. He was the one making that noise by blowing into a sea shell."

"Wow you two make quite a team!"

"I guess we do." The redhead said with a laugh.

"Listen Ginger, don't you worry the Professor will come around. I'm sure that any day he will say that he likes you and you can be happy."

"It would be nice." Ginger sighed. She then looked at the sailor. "Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Promise me you will tell Mary Ann that you like her."

Gilligan's eyes were like saucers and he began to stammer. "Ginger…I…I don't…"

"Yes you do." The starlet said giving him a look. "I know you do. You need to tell her. Promise me that you will tell Mary Ann that you like her and want her to be your girl."

The sailor fidgeted. "But..but what if she says no…I don't want her to say no…I couldn't…"

"Gilligan, I promise you that Mary Ann would not say no. I know she likes you too. I was there when she thought you were the one who brought her those flowers."

The first mate looked confused. "But I did bring her the flowers."

"No I mean she thought you picked them for her to give to her."

"I did." Gilligan said. "I picked them and gave them to her."

"I mean that she thought that they were from _you."_

"Oh…Oh!" The lightbulb went over his head. "Oh she thought that I…"

"Yes. And she was quite happy about it. I told her that she should give you a chance."

"You did?"

"Sure. Why not? You two would make a cute pair. Just like in this movie…The Girl Next Door. Where this awkward but cute boy falls for the girl who lives in the house next to his. He is too shy to tell her how he feels, so he leaves her flowers anonymously on her doorstep everyday. And in the end….she finds him leaving the flowers and there is this big romantic kiss!" Ginger gushed. "It was so sweet! You and Mary Ann could be like that!"

"Oh boy that sounds neat! I could leave Mary Ann flowers everyday and she would never know and then one day…."

"No Gilligan…don't do that. What you should do is pick her a nice bouquet of flowers, bring them to her and tell her this is your way of showing her how much you like her."

"You think that would work?"

"Sure it would. It worked in the movie."

"Thanks Ginger I'll try that!" He said scurrying up and taking off towards the jungle to pick only the best flowers for the farm girl.

Gilligan scoured the jungle searching when something came to mind. A devious plan formed in his mind. Ginger helped him and now he was going to help her. The sailor mischievously rubbed his hands together as he set about putting his scheme into action.

 **Half Hour Later**

Ginger had returned to her hut after her conversation with Gilligan. She hoped he did talk to Mary Ann. If she couldn't be happy, at least her dear sweet friend could be.  
The movie star paused seeing a bright colorful arrangement of flowers sitting on her vanity table. There was a note attached. She picked it up and read it: " _Beautiful flowers for the most beautiful woman on the island."_ Ginger was puzzled. Who in the world would give her flowers? This didn't make sense….then it occurred to her…Gilligan. Gilligan must have left them for Mary Ann! Of course. That made perfect sense.

She smiled and placed the note back in the arrangement. How sweet of that sailor! Mary Ann was sure to love those flowers.

The door opened and the brunette walked in. Ginger turned to her. "Look Mary Ann someone left you flowers."

"Again?" Mary Ann laughed. "That Gilligan!"

"Again? You mean he gave you flowers before?"

"Just a few minutes ago he gave me this little bouquet." She said holding up the flowers in her hand. "He said he picked them for me because I'm the sweetest girl on the island. Then he said something about you being sweet too but that I was sweeter. Isn't he the sweetest!"

"Oh…well I guess he must have left you these too as a surprise. See there is a note attached." She handed it to the farm girl.

Mary Ann read it. "Ginger…I don't think these are for me."

"What do you mean? Of course they are…Gilligan…"

"Was not the one who gave you these flowers." Mary Ann smiled.

"Gave me flowers? Mary Ann I don't understand."

"Look at this stationary…" The farm girl said.

The redhead looked at the top which read _Ohio State Laboratories._ "I uh…I…" Her face felt flush. "I…I…" He couldn't have? Could he? Did he?

"I think you should go talk to a certain someone." Mary Ann smiled.

"Uh…yeah…I…" Ginger walked out of the hut in a daze. Did he really bring her those flowers? Did he…like her?

She approached his hut and walked slowly inside. "Professor." She greeted.

He turned. "Oh hello Ginger…I'm glad you are here."

She smiled inwardly. "You are?"

"Yes. I was just going to go look for you."

"You were?" She squealed to herself.

"There is something that I need to do."

"Oh." The redhead said as she could hardly contain her excitement. "What is it?"

"I need to go to the other side of the island and collect some of that natural gas so I can create a blow torch. I need you to keep watch over these chemicals and make sure nothing happens to them. I finally got the right balance and I don't want anything to mess it up."

Ginger's face fell. "Oh..I see. Okay.." She said sadly.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

"No. Nothing. I'll watch your experiment. You go do what you need to do."

The Professor folded his arms. "Ginger what is wrong?"

"I…I got your flowers…"

"My flowers?" He asked blankly. "What flowers?"

"The flowers you gave me." Ginger explained. "You left me this note.." She said handing it to him.

The Professor took it and looked it over. "Ginger…I assure you I did not leave this note or any flowers for you."

"But….that stationary is yours."

"Yes it is but I did not write this." He stated.

Ginger's heart sank. "Oh…I see…I'm sorry Professor…I guess it was silly of me to think…"

"Think what?"

"Nothing."

"Ginger what is it? What did you think?"

"It's not important. It's not true anyway." She then lifted her eyes to his. "Why don't you like me?"

"What?"

"Am I too superficial?"

"Superficial?"

"You think I'm too vain and shallow don't you."

"Vain and shallow…Ginger I assure you I do not think those things of you."

"Then why don't you like me?"

"Ginger….I…I…Why are you asking me this? Do you…."

She nodded. "I do. I have for a long time…And…And I'm glad that all our rescue attempts failed. It meant that I could stay with you. If we got rescued I would never see you again and I can't stand the thought of it. But I suppose it doesn't matter, you don't want to be romantically involved with me anyway. That's why that time when Gilligan won the sweepstakes you immediately told Mary Ann to go help you find the ticket. You didn't want to be around me."

The academic studied the woman in front of him. At that very moment Ginger Grant never looked more beautiful. She was open and honest and vulnerable. The woman poured her heart out only to believe that he…

"Ginger…I…I did want you to…I only said Mary Ann because…Ginger whenever we go look for something…I can't concentrate."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I get distracted by you. I can't stop looking at you. My mind can't focus on anything but you."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying…Ginger..I…I would very much…like to be…what I mean is…"

Ginger giggled. "You like me?"

"Yes." He replied. "I do."

"Darling all you had to do was say so." She waltzed up to him placing a kiss on his lips. The kiss was deepened as his arms went around her holding her tight.

Gilligan stood outside the window grinning. It worked! His plan worked! Ginger was with the Professor! Mary Ann came up to him. "Gilligan what are you doing? Why are you spying?"

He moved away from the window. "Oh I wasn't spying…I just wanted to see if my plan worked."

"What plan?"

"My plan to get Ginger together with the Professor. I brought her flowers and made her think they were from him." He grinned.

Mary Ann smiled. "You were the one who put those flowers there?"

"Yeah I stole a piece of his stationary so she would think it was from the Professor. Pretty clever."

"I'll say. Did it work?"

Gilligan looked back at the hut and saw the pair through the window still locked in their kiss. "Like a charm." He smiled.

The End!


End file.
